Hillary Clinton is no quitter

The following essay is part of a series in which dozens of women will reveal what women they most admire. The series is part of “Women Rule,” a unique effort this fall by POLITICO, Google and The Tory Burch Foundation exploring how women are leading change in politics, policy and their communities. See more essays here.

Tenacity. That is the critical thread that has been woven throughout Hillary Clinton’s life, driven her many successes and played a central role in capturing the country’s imagination. It is a characteristic that even her philosophical opponents seem to most admire. They respect the fighter in Hillary, even when they disagree.

Text Size

-

+

reset

Dee Dee Myers: Hillary Clinton is the 'North Star'

When she was fighting for women’s rights in 1995, or health care for most of the past 20 years, she did so with tenacious determination. Whether she greeted factory workers in Ohio at 4 a.m. as the first shift started during a grueling primary campaign in 2008, or fought on when many thought hope was lost, her ability to persevere has had an enduring, positive impact on the country’s long-term view of her.

I was 27 years old when I first started working for Hillary. Our first meeting was in the grand elegance of the White House residence in the later years of the Clinton administration. I worked in the West Wing on the Domestic Policy Council. In those days, if you worked on the children and families team, you also worked for Hillary. Even as the most junior staff member, she sought my ideas on issues and talked to me as a colleague.

Back then, the story line on her could not have been more at odds with what it was like actually working with her. Contrary to the public caricature of her as cold, she went out of her way to envelop all of us who worked for her, making us feel part of an effort larger than ourselves.

She mentored and encouraged the group of women who later became known as “Hillaryland,” celebrated our success and stood with us in the trying times. We had her back and she had ours. She unfailingly thanked us for our work and threw us birthday parties and wedding showers. And later, when the babies started to come, she allowed staffers to set up cribs in their offices. When I was getting married, she hosted a party for me in the White House and invited my family. My mother, an immigrant from India, was nervous coming to the White House and meeting the first lady. Hillary immediately worked to make her feel at home.

Many people pay lip services to that ever-elusive work-life balance, but Hillary even rescheduled meetings during the presidential campaign so I could attend my daughter’s pre-K graduation and tuck my kids into bed after a long week of late nights. She did that for all her staff.

I worked for Hillary for the better part of 11 years, in the White House when she was first lady, a Senate candidate, a senator and finally a presidential candidate.

Her tenacity was there in the spotlight on high-profile issues, but it also was there on issues when no one was paying attention, and the odds were long and getting longer.

In the White House, she quietly pushed to increase breast cancer research until it got done, and later in the Senate, she kept her head down and ferociously fought for needs of New York’s first responders who got sick after Sept. 11.

But it wasn’t until the 2008 campaign that the public at large — and even her detractors — started to appreciate that this tenacity they had witnessed throughout her entire public life was illustrative of her core beliefs. It rose above the cacophony, in the latter part of the primary in 2008, in states like Ohio and Texas, where her sheer grit became the message of the campaign. In her victory speech in Ohio, Hillary said, her victory was for all those who were “counted out, but still fighting, for all those who’ve stumbled and gotten right back up.”

In retrospect, it’s clear to me that her ability to stick it out, to persevere in the face of pressure, had an enduring, positive impact on the country’s long-term view of her.

Tenacity also defines the long running issues of Hillary’s life and career — and now my own.

It’s why she was fighting for women’s rights in Beijing in 1995, and Myanmar in 2011 and America in 2013. These are the issues of her life, and she will keep fighting for them through thick and thin. She worked on child care and pre-K in the White House and included universal pre-K in the first proposal of her presidential campaign, and she’s working on them now.

Believe it or not, none of her longtime friends know whether she’ll run for president in 2016. We can hope though. But no matter what she decides to do, we know she will be tenacious and continue to make progress every way she can to get these things done. Because she never gives up. And that’s a lesson for all of us.